Radial bamboo strips are being widely used for structural applications due to the higher yield and high strength. However, there was a sharp taper at the top of bamboo which made nodal diaphragm removed incompletely during the process of stripping. The residual bump could bring about poor bonding strength between adjacent radial bamboo strips. In addition, the traditional radial bamboo strips should be weaved before the next step of processing, which caused a lot of material wastes and consumed a lot of labor and time. In order to address these problems, a novel lumber product made of laminated radial bamboo slices was developed by the proper arrangement of core layer and surface layer. The major and minor directions of a panel were defined as the parallel- and perpendicular-to-its arrangement ones in the core layer, respectively. It was found that (1) the layups with double-layer bamboo mats and radial bamboo slices could produce better mechanical properties. The effective modulus of elasticity in major and minor direction was about 7032.5 MPa and 5016.0 MPa, respectively. The effective modulus of rupture in major and minor direction was about 81.0 MPa and 43.6 MPa, respectively; (2) the density distribution tended to be uniform, with a density of about 0.7 g/cm3 that was lower than other similar bamboo-based materials (about 1.0 g/cm3); and (3) the failures occurred in bamboo slices rather than along the bond lines, suggesting good bond quality achieved in this study.
To reveal the effects of vascular bundle and sheath-node tissues on mechanical strength, moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) was investigated via compression, bending, and tension tests. Quantitative analysis was applied on vascular bundle and sheath-node tissues using a mosaicking technique and Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software. Based on the analysis of internode and node specimens, it was found that 1) there was a significant difference between the tissues proportion and mechanical strength. A high tissues proportion resulted in a high compression strength, tension strength, and modulus of rupture, but a low modulus of elasticity. 2) There was no significant correlation between the tissues proportion and failure modes. 3) The presence of a bamboo node decreased the modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, and tension strength, but it did not affect the compression strength. 4) A bamboo node increased the likelihood of brash tension failure in the bending test and splintering tension failure in the tension test, but decreased the probability of splitting failure in the compression test. 5) The effects of bamboo node on strength were due to the irregular sheath-node and undifferentiated vascular bundles.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.